‘Sovereignty won't be lost at the border’: Anupam Mittal says e ante Digital Competition Bill is ‘overdue’. Here's why
Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal warned that India risks turning into a “colony of digital warlords,” and further argued that India must urgently strengthen its digital
Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal warned that India risks turning into a “colony of digital warlords,” and further argued that India must urgently strengthen its digital sovereignty, cautioning that future battles over control may not be fought at physical borders but in computing infrastructure and digital ecosystems. He added that sovereignty today is no longer lost at the frontier, but in “compute,” highlighting concerns over growing dependence on global tech giants. Mittal also said the proposed e ante Digital Competition Bill is not premature but already overdue, calling for faster regulatory action to safeguard fair competition and national digital control. Mittal said in a post on LinkedIn, “For nearly 1000 years, India was attacked. First by invaders who came for its wealth, then by an empire that came for its resources.
Every version was enforced by the threat of violence. The next thousand years could be quieter, and worse. This colonisation needs no army. It works through the digital platforms that already shape how a billion Indians search, talk, navigate, pay, and now, even think.” "Old empires extracted resources. The new one extracts attention, behaviour, judgement & culture, compounding its grip with every cycle of data and network effects. This time, sovereignty won't be lost at the border. It could be lost in the compute. The e ante Digital Competition Bill isn't early. It's overdue, he added. e ante Digital Competition Bill The e ante Digital Competition Bill (Draft Digital Competition Bill 2024) refers to a proposed Indian law designed to regulate large digital platforms in advance, rather than only after anti-competitive harm occurs.
A parliamentary panel, the Committee on Digital Competition Law, examined the structure of digital markets and published its report along with a draft bill in March 2024. According to the Standing Committee on Finance’s 25th Report on the implementation of the Competition Act, 2002, presented to the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2025, the proposal moved from early recommendation to draft legislation and stakeholder review, before eventually slowing down. Also Read | Govt considers suggestions from over 100 entities on Digital Competition Bill The process began with the Committee’s 2022–23 report on anti-competitive practices in the big tech sector, which called for a shift towards e ante regulation in digital markets. It argued that regulators should intervene proactively to prevent anti-competitive behaviour, since dominance in fast-moving digital industries, once established, is often difficult to reverse.
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